I love investing. I enjoy researching companies, how they work, and what their potential could be in the future. I like watching financial and analytical breakdowns. I love finding new and alternative kinds of investments. I even have fun looking at prices and news and charts, trying to determine where to put my money. Sometimes a little too much fun, perhaps.
Yesterday was one of those days. I passed far too much time thinking about future prices, looking at existing positions, wondering whether I should move money from this stock to that one, from that coin to my bank account, and where to park my cash for the highest interest payments. As I was still mentally switching tabs at night, preparing to go to bed, it hit me: Everything is an investment — even the things that don’t look or feel like traditional investments at all.
Sleeping is an investment into your health, happiness, and most certainly into your productivity of the next day. Not looking at the news or opening Instagram to check for new Pokémon card deals is an investment into your mental space. By keeping your brain free from new information at times, you give it space to come up with better information and creative ideas on its own later on. Leaving your stocks app closed on a day when you know the market is down is an investment into your peace of mind. If you’re not going to see the numbers you want to see, you might as well ignore them altogether and keep working on something that might lead to real progress down the road.
Managing your time and money are honorable tasks. Most people don’t face them clearly enough, and many don’t face them at all. Managing yourself, however — your inner essence and mental and emotional states — is the highest task of all. Make sure you don’t forget it over the adrenaline rush that is our worldly affairs.
Everything is an investment — and sometimes, the best bet you can make is to not think about bets at all.